Indian tablet sales improve, log 9% q-o-q growth: IDC

Samsung at first spot; Micromax pips Apple to take second spot

India tablet market has shown early signs of recovery in Q2 2014 after taking a sharp hit in the past couple of quarters.

According to International Data Corporation (IDC), tablet market shipments in India stood at 0.86 million units in Q2 2014, logging a quarter-on-quarter growth of 9% over Q1 2014.

"This recovery was fuelled by multiple factors. Business sentiments have shown improvement post elections and near term prospects are anticipated to remain better too. Further, traditional PC OEMs have started making big inroads in the tablet market and most of this success is led by leveraging their vast expanded reach through multiple distribution points," says Karan Thakkar, Senior Market Analyst, IDC India.

Android continues to be the most preferred Operating system. With 89.6% market share, Android is expected to sail above 80% mark over the next few years. Windows OS is gaining ground too. However, much of these volumes are currently being driven by the spurt in enterprise buying.

Tablets with screen size of 7 to 8 inch contributed 88% to the overall market in Q2 CY2014. IDC expects dominance of the aforementioned screen size to continue. However, on the low volume side, tablets with screen size of 10 to 11inch grew by 54% in Q2 CY2014.

With 19% market share, Samsung stood at the first spot. Majority of its volume is driven by sub-$200 voice calling Tablets. Strong performance in Q2 2014 allowed Micromax to tip Apple to the second spot. Apple with 9% market share stood at the third spot. More than 60% of the overall iPad volume is being supported by their iPad mini.

"The combined share of PC OEMs in the India tablet market is expected to beat industry growth in the coming quarters," adds Thakkar.

According to Kiran Kunar, Research Manager, Client Devices IDC India, "Improved discretionary spends by end users and festive buying is expected to drive growth in the tablet market in the coming quarters. IDC anticipates this to be well supported by the optimism witnessed around enterprise IT spending in the recent past".

IDC further says, "Despite inconsistencies, smaller importers continue to remain successful in a highly price sensitive market and hence branded players should be cautious of any distractions."